THE MAKING OF THE NEW IG OF POLICE
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
In less than two months from today Nigeria is expected to have a new Inspector General of police following the constitutionally expected exit of the current holder of that office Mr. Mike Okiro after he must have served out his years in the Nigeria police on attainment of the statutory sixty years of age or thirty five years cumulatively in service. The search for who succeeds him in the office of the INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE at this very critical time in Nigeria’s history has started in earnest and in a Democracy like Nigeria where the holder of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua has severally told the whole World that his administration is anchored on the pillars of the RULE OF LAW and respect for due process, merit, competence and national integration, most watchers of events in Nigeria from around the World expect nothing less from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in making his choice of who becomes the next Inspector General of Police. In case you may be wondering why I decided to suspend a running article on HUMAN TRAFFICKING in this column which is expected to be completed in this edition of this column to dwell on the topic of the making of the new Inspector General of Police then listen. The making of the new Inspector General of Police is the same as the making of a Priest in the Catholic Church where the process of selecting and approving candidates for the priesthood is strictly based on merit, competence and above all those who have the right vocation or calling. If the Catholic Church gets it right in the choice of who becomes a priest then the lay worshippers will be inspired and will be constantly spiritually and morally elevated and edified but if on the other hand the Catholic Church gets it wrong in deciding who becomes a Catholic Priest then there will be crisis of faith among the people of God because for a leader in the mould of a Priest to emerge he must have the requisite competences, seniority in knowledge and experience and above all must have the call for the job which is why the Priesthood in the Catholic Church is regarded theologically as a VOCATION from the Latin word VOCARE- TO CALL or VOCO-CALL. In the same way, the making of the new Inspector General of Police must be devoid of petty politics of making sure that my brother or the SON OF THE SOIL from Mr. President Geo-political zone emerges just like what obtained throughout the eight years of misrule of the immediate past Federal Government of Olusegun Obasanjo whereby Yoruba Police Officers who are even by far juniors to one of the current holders of the Deputy Inspector General of Police were arbitrarily appointed Inspectors General of Police.
To underscore what I am writing because the immediate past Federal Government or President was a man who is patently tribalistic and ensured that the holder of the important office of the Inspector General of Police is from his Ethnic stock, he ended up offering Nigeria one of her worst Inspectors General of Police who ended up as the first Nigerian holder of the office of the Inspector General of Police that became a crime convict for alleged fraud and corruption. This same character who performed all manners of perfidious activities especially during election period was later charged for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under the last Chairman Nuhu Ribadu and this Tafa Balogun the man in question ended up in Kuje federal prison facility for six months as a convict after he was handed a funny and laughable six months ‘arrangee’ jail term by an Abuja High Court Judge for a very heinous alleged crime of grand scale corruption running to Billions of Police money which was why Police administration under him became commercialized so much so that who so ever had reason to go to the police station to lodge complaint for assistance in solving a crime must be ready to fuel the operational vehicles of the Nigeria Police because the funds available for such vital services where allegedly stolen and kept away in the private account of this Inspector General of Police who was wrongly made an Inspector General of Police because he is an ‘egbon’ [a Yoruba word for my brother] of the President Olusegun Obasanjo. The next person to succeed Tafa Balogun also had his own bag full of stories because on the morning he was removed after over staying the statutory period in service, one of his aides was allegedly arrested trying to cart away huge sums of Police funds running into millions and when his colleagues who arrested him at the Loius Edet Police Force Headquarters asked him who owns the huge cash baggage he was smuggling out he allegedly stated that the then sacked Inspector General of police is the rightful owner. That matter has been conveniently swept under the carpet and Sunday Ehindero the man in question is now busy pontificating as one of the ‘Big’ lawyers around who are championing the interest of the police that he failed abysmally to reform during his stint in office. Apart from Mustapha Smith who was the first Inspector General of Police during the last perfidious administration of Olusegun Obasanjo none of the other two can raise their heads and lay claim to the fact that they deserved their appointments on the basis of competence, seniority of experience and knowledge, academic exposure and possession of the right kind of vocation to head such a strategic office. The Nigeria Police according to writers has a history dating back to 1861.
Observers say that although the Nigeria Police was not legally in existence in 1861 but it is generally believed that it would be more comprehensive to begin the discussion of the historicity of the Nigeria Police around that period. Contributing a piece in a researched Book titled POLICING NIGERIA, past, present and future, Sunday Ehiindero who would later emerge although through a less transparent and nationalistic process as the Inspector General of Police of Nigeria said that the Nigeria Police was EN VENTRE SA MERE that is in being until 1930 when she was born. He further wrote that the organization and command of the Nigeria police Force have a common denominator of administration. The former involves the utilization of men and material to achieve the force objectives while the later, command, implies the hierarchical order of personnel with varying degrees of supervisory authority. It is a shame that a man who could write so well like this on what is good for the Nigeria Police accepted to become the Inspector General of Police in a less than dignified and transparent process and he was instrumental in the earliest confusion that trailed the selection of his successor when he refused to hand over to the most senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Ogbonnaya Onovo because of his fears, apprehensions and anxiety that if Ogbonnaya Onovo takes over as he rightly should have, then he is in for very tough time because of the formidable background of Ogbonoya Onovo who is one of the very few well respected senior officers in the history of the Nigeria police. So far he is one of the few Police officers who was appointed to head another law enforcement agency like the National Drugs law enforcement Agency [NDLEA] that came out unscathed and untainted with scandal associated with official indiscretion and when he was bye passed in the choice of the current Inspector General of Police because he is an Igbo man, he did not cry blue murder but accepted his faith as a true professional that he is which explains the ways and manners he has so far served as the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of administration. Though some of us in the civil society criticised his handling of the panel that investigated the last executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the subsequent recommendation by the Ogbonnaya Onovo-led panel which led to the dismissal of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu , but if the truth be told, competence, merit and professional thoroughness are his hallmark and he is a loyal officer who has three more years to serve this Country in the most patriotic way that he has always done. My wife saw me writing this piece and she asked what is my own about who becomes the new Inspector General of Police particularly when the Nigeria Police has this terrible record as one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights of citizens and I quickly corrected her that though she was right in drawing to that popular conclusion but that in the same Police Force there are still men of honour, integrity, unquestionable loyalty to Nigeria and Nigerians and that one of them is the most senior and most experienced and knowledgeable Police officers who is heading the administrative wing of the Nigeria Police and she shouted HOW CAN SINCE HE IS AN IGBO MAN? There lies the issue that the current President has to resolve for posterity to remain eternally grateful to him long after he is gone from the face of the earth just like the mortal that we all are and that is the President should correct the wrong impression that no officer from the South East will ever become the Inspector General of Police. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua can do it because he has done it before severally. He was the first President to name an Igbo Lady as the Nigeria’s first Head of Service. The selection of who succeeded the retired Custom’s boss followed the due process of law and respected the RULE OF LAW. Nigerians are looking up to him to exercise his presidential discretion in solving a myth that no Igbo man will ever become the Inspector General of Police and I can assure him that posterity would be happy and remember him as one of Nigeria’s Statesmen certainly not in the mould of Olusegun Obasanjo who used the binoculars of tribalism to make sensitive appointments into the Nigerian Armed Forces and Police.
Now to this all important question of why the rule of law should be complied with in the exercise by the president of his Constitutional powers of appointing the new inspector General of Police let us listen to Dr. Sam Amadi who graduated with a Doctorate Degree in Law from the number one University in the entire global village Harvard University Law school which incidentally produced World’s first black president of the white dominated United States of America Barrack Obama. Sam Amadi recently introduced an explosive book into the Nigerian market titled PRIVATIZATION AND PUBLIC GOOD sub-titled THE RULE OF LAW CHALLENGE. In that 232 page book Dr. Sam Amadi stated without a shadow of doubt that ‘’in most elemental sense the rule of law means that the law [whatever its’ constituents] and not just the whims and caprice or fancies of the ruler, governs’’. Section 215[1] of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stated that there SHALL be an Inspector General of Police, who, subject to section 216[2] of this constitution SHALL be appointed by the President on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council FROM AMONG SERVING MEMBERS OF THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE. What this shows is that the intention of the drafters of this constitution is that MERIT, COMPETENCE, SENIORITY OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE are the qualities that are basic and must be possessed by any of the most senior Police officers who the President in his wisdom should appoint as the Inspector General of Police. Umaru Musa Yar’adua our President elected by all Nigerians of diverse ethnic backgrounds must not have his own tribal consideration in selecting this very important official especially at this time that Nigeria needs vastly experienced and knowledgeable officer as the helmsman of the Nigeria Police, a person who understands what it means to keep a crime free society and a person untainted by scandals of any dimension and an officer who would stay for another three solid years to stabilize the reforms that are systematically being implemented in the Nigeria Police under the watch of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. The ball is in the court of our President to choose a good Inspector General of Police and all we can do is to pray that he makes the right choice for the public good of Nigeria.
+Emmanuel onwubiko heads the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERA.
